53 Two, Manchester

Selling itself as an "Arts & Performance" space this is a bar in an arch under Manchester Central. It's effectively a long, thin tunnel with a bar on the right and a couple of alcoves . There's also a piano with a sign on it that advertises "Pianaoke". Through a door into the next arch (not visited) is another area where a comedy night was being advertised later in the week. On the bar are 4 craft keg beers from Brightside Brewery, so I'm guessing that Carley Friedrich at Brightside may well have something to do with here. The pub dog is a whippet which is also unusual. Worth a visit if you like to try somewhere different.

53 Two opened in May and is situated in the Grade 2 listed final arch at the bottom of Watson Street,with the name being derived from the bar's geographical position. The bar has been opened by an Independent theatre group and although just a bar at the moment they hope to open the adjacent arch into a 150 seater theatre.The room is very long with a cosy alcove on the right complete with a mini library.The bar follows this and beyond this is a baby grand piano. An interesting feature of the bar is the over 100 boat shuttles inlayed into the concrete walkway with quite a few of the shuttles still with cotton attached and could represent the canal boats that used to carry the cotton away in the 18th and 19th centuries. There were 8 beer taps on show although one was doubled up.The staff were very helpful and informative and if you are near Deansgate it is definitely worth a visit. The opening hours are 11am till 1am